CHRISTIAN EVIDENCES

Psalm 14:1 "The fool has said in his heart,
there is no God"

All articles are written in the
NKJV, unless otherwise noted! All articles are written by David Hicks,
unless specified otherwise.

Fulfilled Prophecies That Prove The Bible To Be Inspired.

In former lessons we have noticed the wonderful unity and scientific
accuracy of the Bible. These were presented as reasons for believing the
Bible to be a Special Divine Revelation. We come now to our next reason,
which are the many examples of fulfilled prophecies to be found in the
Bible. Our proposition may be stated thus:

I.
Man cannot know the future; only
God can foretell history.

II.The Bible foretold history of
nations and the coming of Christ.

III.Therefore the Bible is the word
of God.

(Prophecy is the making
known of that which was previously un-known, past, present, or future. A
prophet is simply a mouthpiece for God.)

Our study shall be some
examples of the second statement made above, which prove the third statement
to be true. Before noticing these examples, we should note a quotation from
“Internal Evidence of Inspiration”, by Harry Rimmer:

“It is
necessary that we briefly state the tests of true prophecy. There has been
so much of fraud and deception in the world, that we cannot expect men
blindly to accept the Bible's claims to infallibility unless those claims
can be sustained. To clarify the question and to show the nature of
prophecy, let us consider these four rules:

A prophecy must be the unveiling of the future or past that no mere
human foresight could guess.

A prophecy must be spoken so long before the event takes place that
the lapse of time will preclude the agency of the prophet himself in
bringing to pass the fulfillment thereof.

Prophecy must contain sufficient number of details to exclude
accident or guesswork.

A prophecy is fully accredited only by its historical fulfillment.”

The Bible teaches that we should
accept a prophet as having come from God only when his prophecies come to
pass ( Deuteronomy
18:20 -22; Jeremiah 28:7-9 ). We may now put these prophecies
to the test and see that what they said has come to pass. (Please read the
corresponding scripture for each example for precise details)

The Jews stand as
one of the greatest monuments of fulfilled prophecies.

II.Prophecies Concerning
Egypt . ( Isaiah 19,
Ezekiel 29,30 )

•
Egypt was to become desolate in the
midst of desolations.

•
Their would be no more prince of
Egypt ; it was to be ruled by strangers.

•
It was to become the basest of
kingdoms. “
Egypt has had many different masters through the centuries since the time of
prophecy. First the Babylonians, then the Persians, then the Greeks, the
Romans, the Arabs, the Turks, the French, and lastly the English, but all
have been strangers and all have despoiled the land of its riches.” ( Hamilton , The Basis of
Christian Faith, pg. 304)

•
The land was to become less
productive ( Ezekiel
30:12; Isaiah 19:5-6 ).
Modern writers say the Nile now supports only a fraction of the former land
it supplied and irrigated. The canals have diminished and dried up.

•
It was to be destroyed by water and
fire providentially working with its enemies.

•
From its destruction, it would not
rise up a second time.

•
It should become a desolation and
dry barren place, like a wilderness or desert.

•
Flocks should lie down there. Those
who passed by should hiss and wag the head, in sympathy with the ruin which
had mocked its former grandeur.

For nearly a century after Assyria
took Samaria into captivity, it was plagued and besieged from all sides,
from Babylon , Elam , the Medes, Phrygia , and Egypt . The last quarter of
the seventh century B.C. saw the fall and decline of the Assyrian empire and
its subjugation by the Chaldean conquerors of Babylonia , with Medes.
Nineveh was taken in 612 B.C.

IV.Prophecy Concerning
Babylon ( Isaiah
13:1-14:27; Jeremiah 50-51 ).

•
It was to be entirely overthrown, as
were Sodom and Gomorrah .

•
It should never be inhabited nor
dwelt in from generation to generation.

•
The Arab should not pitch his tent
there; nor do shepherds make their fold.

•
Wild beasts of the desert should lie
there.

•
Her walls and foundations and
palaces should be cut off.

•
Those who passed by should be
astonished at her plagues.

The life of the prophet Daniel
extended from the first year of Nebuchadnezzar, through the reigns of the
succeeding five kings, past the fall of Babylon , into the Persian Empire ,
through the reign of Darius the Mede, even unto the third year of Cyrus the
Persian. The Babylonian empire lasted a total of seventy years and was never
again a factor of prominence in the region.

•
The city was to be taken and
destroyed by the Chaldeans ( Ezekiel 26:7-11 ).

•
Again Tyre was to be taken and
destroyed ( Ezekiel
27:32; Zechariah 9:3-4 ). Alexander the Great was the
second destroyer in 332 B.C.

•
Finally, the city was to be a place
where fisherman would dry their nets.

During the siege by
Alexander the Great, a causeway was constructed to assist in the siege.
After the city was taken and completely destroyed the causeway remained and
fishermen used it to dry their nets.

VI.
Prophecy Concerning Sidon (
Ezekiel 28:20-24 ).

•
It should be a scene of bloodshed
and slaughter.

•
Although we are told that Sidon
should be a place of bloodshed, we are not told that it should be utterly
destroyed, as was Tyre , its neighboring city. Notice how carefully the doom
of both cities is foretold, yet no mistake is made confusing them.

By and large, the history of Sidon
followed the course of that of all Phoenicia . In common with the rest of
the lands of the Middle East , Sidon fell under the power in turn of Assyria
, Babylon , Persia , Greece , and Rome . Brief lived patterns of alliance,
periods of independence, parley, subjection, ill-advised revolt,
destruction, and renaissance, were the common lot with the rise and fall of
the great nations. Yet, Sidon did not completely fall.

If prophecies such as these should
be spoken today about such cities as Houston , New York , Chicago , etc., or
even the United States , men would say they could never come true. Yet,
these cities and countries we have mentioned were great and important in the
ancient world as our modern cities are to us today. How did these men know
they would all pass away and be destroyed? And how could they describe their
coming destruction so accurately? We must conclude that they were inspired
of God as prophets, and thus what they wrote must have been the inspired
word of God.

Another type of prophecy is
the prophecies of the coming Christ, but we shall reserve these for a later
lesson, since they prove both the inspiration of the Bible and the divinity
of Christ.